CNN: The founder of the Oath Keepers right-wing paramilitary group was giving directions before and during the Capitol riot to extremists already charged in the largest conspiracy case related to January 6, the Justice Department said in court filings that outlines the … Continue reading
Category Archives: chicanery
AP: The effort showed how social media and other technology can be leveraged to spread misinformation so quickly that those trying to stop it cannot keep up. There were signs that it worked as Donald Trump swung large numbers of … Continue reading
NBC New York: Two city council members in Paterson have been indicted for allegedly interfering with a special election last year, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced Wednesday, in a case cited by then-President Donald Trump in his unsuccessful lawsuit to … Continue reading
NBC News: Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., has released a detailed examination of the social media accounts of Republican House members who voted to overturn the 2020 election results to analyze what role they might have played in inciting the deadly violence … Continue reading
Steven Rosenfeld: Partisan disinformation to undermine 2020’s presidential election shadowed every step of the voting process last year but took an unprecedented turn when the earliest false claims morphed into intricate conspiracies as Election Day passed and President Trump worked … Continue reading
WaPo offers another True the Vote/Jim Bopp/Eshelman lawsuit dive. … Continue reading
Some great reporting here from Richard Salame: Eshelman ultimately gave True the Vote a total of $2.5 million for its 2020 election efforts. True the Vote launched a massive undertaking in November to recruit whistleblowers, lobby legislatures, analyze data, and file lawsuits in … Continue reading
Jane Timm for NBC News. … Continue reading
NYT: Former President Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party leveraged false claims of voter fraud and promises to overturn the election to raise more than a quarter-billion dollars in November and December as hundreds of thousands of trusting supporters … Continue reading
Michael Wines for the NYT: In Georgia, Arizona and other states won by President Biden, some leading Republicans stood up in November to make what, in any other year, would be an unremarkable statement: The race is over. And we … Continue reading
Oh my: Republican legislators, still steamed about Joe Biden winning Arizona, have been furiously scheming various ways to make it more difficult for people to vote.There’s a bill that would allow only the most faithful party voters to automatically get early ballots and one … Continue reading
NYT: Warning that the deadly rampage of the Capitol this month may not be an isolated episode, the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday said publicly for the first time that the United States faced a growing threat from “violent … Continue reading
This from Tierney Sneed and Matt Shuham is a must-read. … Continue reading
WSJ: The Justice Department’s inspector general said Monday his office will investigate whether department officials “engaged in an improper attempt” to overturn President Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.The announcement comes after news reports that former President Donald Trump considered moving to … Continue reading
Jess Bravin and Sadie Gurman for WSJ: In his last weeks in office, former President Donald Trump considered moving to replace the acting attorney general with another official ready to pursue unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, and he pushed the Justice … Continue reading
NYT profile: It was New Year’s Eve, but the Justice Department’s top leaders had little to celebrate as they discussed Jeffrey Clark, the acting head of the civil division, who had repeatedly pushed them to help President Donald J. Trump … Continue reading
NYT: When Representative Scott Perry joined his colleagues in a monthslong campaign to undermine the results of the presidential election, promoting “Stop the Steal” events and supporting an attempt to overturn millions of legally cast votes, he often took a … Continue reading
Truly frightening story: The Justice Department’s top leaders listened in stunned silence this month: One of their peers, they were told, had devised a plan with President Donald J. Trump to oust Jeffrey A. Rosen as acting attorney general and … Continue reading
Anna Massoglia for Open Secrets: Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign aides played key roles orchestrating a rally protesting certification of President-elect Joe Biden‘s victory in the 2020 presidential election before hundreds of rioters breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. But the full extent … Continue reading
Politico: The pardons went to Democrats, lobbyists and rappers, with nary a “patriot” among them. The mass arrests of Antifa campaigners never came. The inauguration stage at the Capitol, full of America’s most powerful politicians, was not purged of Satan-worshipping … Continue reading
Quite the rogue’s gallery. … Continue reading
ABC News: The FBI is investigating whether a woman who allegedly participated in the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol stole a computer or hard drive from the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with the intention of selling it to … Continue reading
WaPo: The FBI privately warned law enforcement agencies Monday that far-right extremists have discussed posing as National Guard members in Washington and others have reviewed maps of vulnerable spots in the city — signs of potential efforts to disrupt Wednesday’s … Continue reading
From Episode 3 of Axios’s must-read “Off the Rails” series: President Trump was sitting in the Oval Office one day in late November when a call came in from lawyer Sidney Powell. “Ugh, Sidney,” he told the staff in the room … Continue reading
NYT: Immediately after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, all corners of the political spectrum repudiated the mob of President Trump’s supporters. Yet within days, prominent Republicans, party officials, conservative media voices and rank-and-file voters began making a rhetorical shift … Continue reading
WaPo: Online misinformation about election fraud plunged 73 percent after several social media sites suspended President Trump and key allies last week, research firm Zignal Labs has found, underscoring the power of tech companies to limit the falsehoods poisoning public debate when they act … Continue reading
CNBC: A progressive group is urging corporations to stop contributing to the Federalist Society after one of the conservative legal organization’s leaders was featured at last week’s rally that preceded the deadly riot on Capitol Hill.Demand Justice told CNBC that … Continue reading
The Conversation: Editor’s note: Some of the money used to organize the Jan. 6 pro-Trump “March to Save America” came from social welfare groups. One of them, Women for America First, notably obtained a permit from the National Park Service for the rally – which preceded … Continue reading
Philly Inquirer: Federal prosecutors in Harrisburg announced Friday they had found “insufficient evidence” of a crime in an election investigation that President Donald Trump and his allies had repeatedly touted as a sign of vote-rigging in Pennsylvania.The case, involving nine military … Continue reading
WaPo: President Trump’s exhortation for his supporters to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6 has galvanized a nationwide extremist movement and fueled those determined to disrupt the transfer of power to President-elect Joe Biden and violently challenge the legitimacy of … Continue reading
WaPo: Weeks before a mob of President Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, right-wing activist Ali Alexander told his followers he was planning something big for Jan. 6.Alexander, who organized the “Stop the Steal” movement, said he hatched the plan … Continue reading
Philly Inquirer: Yet the congressmen and others from Pennsylvania nevertheless spent months supporting the claim that widespread fraud, procedural decisions, or irregularities undermined the integrity of the election, lending their authority to the argument that the very foundation of American … Continue reading
NYT: Officials in state capitals across the country are bracing for a spillover from last week’s violent assault on the U.S. Capitol, with legislatures already becoming targets for protesters in the tense days around the inauguration of the incoming president, Joseph … Continue reading
NYT: Social media has played a crucial role in the support of Mr. Trump since he announced his intention to run for president five years ago. And the rioters who attacked the Capitol last week did much of their planning in the … Continue reading
John Harris in Politico: No previous transition has raised similar doubts about whether the executive branch, including the military, is being run with a clear and lawful chain of command, with a psychologically competent individual at the top.It is imperative … Continue reading
WSJ: White House officials pushed Atlanta’s top federal prosecutor to resign before Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoffs because President Trump was upset he wasn’t doing enough to investigate the president’s unproven claims of election fraud, people familiar with the matter said.A … Continue reading
Another Amy Gardner exclusive for WaPo: President Trump urged Georgia’s lead elections investigator to “find the fraud” in a lengthy December phone call, saying the official would be a “national hero,” according to an individual familiar with the call who … Continue reading
NYT: The Trump administration politicized the intelligence around foreign election interference in 2020, resulting in significant errors in its reports last year to Congress and the public, a report by the intelligence community ombudsman concluded.Barry A. Zulauf, the analytic ombudsman … Continue reading
NYT: Vice President Mike Pence told President Trump on Tuesday that he did not believe he had the power to block congressional certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory in the presidential election despite Mr. Trump’s baseless insistence that he … Continue reading
WaPo. Unlike Trump, Cruz knows better. He’s smart. This is just evil. … Continue reading
Trevor Potter and Mark Gaber in WaPo: Although a criminal conviction does require proof of intent — proof Trump knew he was asking for nonexistent votes to be counted in his favor — a person cannot avoid criminal liability by … Continue reading
Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman in the NYT: As president of the Senate, Mr. Pence is expected to preside over the pro forma certification of the Electoral College vote count in front of a joint session of Congress. It is … Continue reading
I have written this piece for Slate. It begins: President Donald Trump likely broke both federal and state law in a Saturday phone call during which he encouraged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn … Continue reading
I have written this piece for The Atlantic. It begins: The 2020 election and its aftermath have laid bare an unhappy truth: Many of the familiar procedures for translating the people’s will into the choice of a president depend on … Continue reading
Politico: Timed to the day when Congress will formally certify President-elect Joe Biden’s win, the MAGA crowd is trying to pressure Vice President Mike Pence and Republican lawmakers to refuse to seat Biden over fabricated voter-fraud claims. It’s a doomed … Continue reading
Marc Caputo: It started on Saturday when Trump and his team reached out to talk to Raffensperger, who, according to an adviser, felt he would be unethically pressured by the president. Raffensperger had been here before: In November he accused Trump ally and … Continue reading
Amy Gardner exclusive for WaPo: President Trump urged fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, to “find” enough votes to overturn his defeat in an extraordinary one-hour phone call Saturday that legal scholars described as a flagrant abuse … Continue reading
Josh Douglas for CNN Opinion: Don’t be too nervous about Republican Sen. Josh Hawley’s announcement that he will object to the certification of Joe Biden as President when Congress meets on Jan. 6. His ploy won’t stop Biden from taking the oath of office … Continue reading
I don’t expect this to make a difference in the outcome, but rather only to extend the day as the chambers of Congress consider objections. … Continue reading
Very helpful Politico article on the Jan. 6 state of play: President Donald Trump’s last-gasp bid to overturn his 2020 election defeat appears doomed on Jan. 6, when Congress is set to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.But the byzantine process … Continue reading